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Old Jan 3, 2009 | 1:23 pm
  #32  
hbyerly
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Burke, VA USA
Programs: UA 1k, HHonors Gold
Posts: 765
I'm there now, staying one more night. Here's the first draft of my review for tripadvisor:

Get an Odd-Numbered Room [Just checked in the light of day and this is wrong, it isn't the typical US number scheme]

The Hilton Wangfujing is brand new, and while they are still working out the kinks, eventually this will be an excellent hotel. In the meantime, be prepared to be part of the staff training, which is more about form than function for now.

As HH Gold, I was upgraded to the executive floor (16), and the rooms here are very impressive with a walk-in dressing area, and free-standing tub. Be prepared, this is a modern layout, with no wall between the bed and the sink/tub area. The toilet and shower are in separate smoked-glass stalls, but I wouldn't want to share a room with someone I didn't know very well. The Executive lounge is well-appointed and roomy, and there was an impressive array of food both at breakfast and in the evening.

The on-site chinese-themed restaurant is typically (for Hilton) pricey, but the food was very good (although I found it overly fussy on presentation). The service in the restaurant was excellent, and indeed all of the staff during my stay were very attentive and eager to help, although this may be partially due to the very low occupancy rate so far.

Your cab driver won't know about this hotel because it's so new, and an address in non-Chinese characters won't do you any good. Be prepared with directions in Chinese characters, or provide the phone number to driver at the start of the trip so that they can call to get directions from the staff. I arrived at the airport about 11pm, and my metered fare should have been about 160Y (around $20), but was slightly more since the driver insisted on taking me to the nearby Crown Plaza and seemed puzzled when I wouldn't get out.

Although the hotel is in an excellent location (walking distance to major sites and a pedestrial mall), the entrance is on a small side street and faces a construction site, which may add to the confusion in finding it initially.

And that brings us to the big caveat about this hotel - the adjoining construction site. For some reason, the bulk of the work goes on from 11PM to the wee hours of the morning, and the heavy equipment is not only loud, it causes the entire room to vibrate. I finally gave up on my second sleepless night in 1613 and asked to be moved across the hall at 3am, which the front desk quickly did. I can't stress it enough: ASK FOR AN ODD-NUMBERED ROOM. [As noted above, this is wrong. On 16 it looks like only 1601 and 1602 are on the quiet side, everything else is on the noisy side of the building.] Obviously the management are aware of the midnight construction, and I'm upset that they didn't mention it when I checked in. I expect this will go on for some time; when I was there in early January '09, they were still moving piles of dirt around, so there's a long way to go.

In summary, this will eventually be an excellent hotel, but they're still working out the bugs. If you can get a good rate, I'd stay here again, but only if I could be assured of a room on the non-construction side of the building.

Last edited by hbyerly; Jan 3, 2009 at 7:20 pm Reason: Wrong info on room numbering.
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